


Take Five

by animeXalchemist



Category: Free!
Genre: First Meetings, M/M, Romance, Speed Dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-16
Updated: 2014-10-16
Packaged: 2018-02-21 11:04:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2465954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animeXalchemist/pseuds/animeXalchemist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To say that Haruka Nanase was less than enthused about speed dating would be the understatement of the millennium. Then again, he really hadn’t counted on someone changing his opinion of it so quickly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Five

**Author's Note:**

> So rinspookyoka posted an idea on Tumblr about a RinHaru SpeedDating!AU, so of course I had to write it!!
> 
> Here's the post that initially inspired me: http://mamakoto.co.vu/post/99587098807/rinharu-speeddating-au-rin-would-be-the-one

The concept was simple enough: sit down, pretend like you possess social skills, and awkwardly manoeuvre your way through the same five minute conversation until you hear the bell. Rinse and repeat.

Obviously, approaching such a feat required a certain mind-set and to say that Haruka Nanase possessed such a mind-set would be a blatant lie. He’d thought that Makoto had been joking when his friend suggested speed dating but _somehow_ the issue was continually brought up to the point that Haruka reluctantly signed up for a session if only to keep the fire-fighter at bay and his sanity somewhat in tact.

(Plus the restaurant hosting this event had mackerel on the menu. Though of course that’s not why he chose it. Obviously.)

The current conversation he was being subjected to involved a weedy sort of man who had immediately plonked a laptop down on the table and had proceeded to start a Power Point presentation all about himself, which admittedly saved Haruka from asking the same inane questions as if he cared. He hadn’t actually realised until he’d shown up that this was a speed dating event for gay men, not that it particularly mattered either way seeing as Haruka wasn’t fussed about such things. Besides, mackerel was on the menu.

(Okay, quite possibly it _was_ the reason he signed up.)

Someone somewhere rang the bell and the man neatly scooped up his laptop, nodded, and scurried off to the next table. Haruka looked down at the leaflet where he was supposed to ‘grade his date’ in the hopes of finding a compatible match later on and sighed at it. His pencil lead had snapped somewhere between the fourth and sixth ‘dates’ and he really couldn’t bring himself to care all that much. It was as he was contemplating ripping the thing apart and leaving that he heard the chair opposite from him scrape faintly against the floor and someone was introducing himself.

“Hey there,” a friendly enough voice said, and when Haruka looked up he was met with a confident grin, “The name’s Rin Matsuoka.”

Rin Matsuoka was a young man, about his age if he were to guess, and exuded the sort of personality that seemed to naturally attract people. Indeed, when Haruka quickly glanced around, he found a good few men gazing at the redhead in very _un_ subtle ways. Haruka looked back at him, at a loss for words. Suddenly the mundane questions seemed inadequate.

“And you are?” Rin asked after a moment, tilting his head to the side curiously. Haruka definitely didn’t think the action was cute or endearing in any way.

“…Haruka Nanase.”

“Nice to meet ya, Nanase~” Rin hummed, leaning over the table to offer his hand and as he did so Haruka became aware of a subtle scent only partially masked by the spice of the man’s cologne.

“You smell like chlorine,” he noted, eyes widening a little at this revelation.

Rin appeared sheepish and scratched the back of his neck. “Ah, yeah… I kinda lost track of time at the pool before I came here,” he said awkwardly, “Usually I’m—”

“—I like it,” Haruka said decidedly, sitting up properly in his chair for the first time that evening. “You like swimming?”

“Like?” Rin asked, chuckling, “Try _love_. When I was younger I’d always dreamed of competing on the world stage, but… some stuff happened. I still swim regularly though. Fly and free are my specialities,” he said proudly. “You like to swim then?”

Haruka nodded. “I only swim free.”

“Seriously? Huh. We’ll have to have a race sometime then.”

Haruka was sure that Rin was just saying that for the hell of it, but the idea that there would be a ‘sometime’, thus implying a ‘next time’, really didn’t seem all that unappealing. He nodded his agreement.

“So what do you do, Nanase?” Rin asked conversationally, easily avoiding the awkward pauses that had permeated through the preceding ‘dates’.

“I’m a chef at _Poissons D’avenir_.”

“No way! Ah man, Sousuke always brings pastries from that place and they’re delicious!” Rin said happily. “I’ll have to stop by in person sometime.”

‘Sometime’… a ‘next time’. More time than a mere five minutes.

Speaking of, before Haruka could even begin to ask what Rin did the bell started ringing out and Haruka deflated a little. Had it really been five minutes? Until now the time had dragged on seemingly endlessly, but this current date felt as though it had only lasted a matter of meagre seconds. Brilliant, the one conversation he was actually, dare he say, _enjoying_ and it had to be cut short. However, Rin made absolutely no effort to move even as another man approached the table.

“It’s time to switch,” the man— a burly guy in his late-twenties— said, and still Rin stayed put.

“There’s a rule that says you’re allowed to stay at a table for ten minutes,” he said easily, though the man didn’t seem to be buying it.

“No, the system clearly says—” The man was getting worked up but before he could continue Rin reached for his pocket and neatly whipped something— a badge— out and held it in front of the man’s face.

“Now now, are you _really_ going to argue with a police officer?” he asked, eyes innocent and unblinking even if there was just the _hint_ of a threat to his tone. Rin was so calm and collected throughout this whole thing that Haruka couldn’t help but stare. “You would deny a hardworking officer of the law the chance to have a small conversation?”

“W-Well no but—”

“Brilliant~” Rin grinned. “See you later then!” The man eventually did leave the two of them alone and when he did Rin turned back and smiled at Haruka, who was still trying to come to terms with the fact that Rin was _voluntarily_ staying at his table and breaking the event rules in the process.

“You’re a cop?” Haruka asked, genuinely interested as he took a sip of water.

“Nah,” Rin replied, making a shooing motion with his hand as if to dispel such a notion, “This badge is just a prop. I’m actually a stripper.”

Haruka nearly choked on his water, blue eyes widening in surprise and he forgot how to swallow for a moment so that a small trickle of water fell from his lips and down his chin. At this point Rin was laughing so much that he was half bent over the table, tears forming in his eyes.

“I-I finally g-got you to show emotion!” he managed between his laughs, gazing at Haruka happily.

“You’re really a…?” Did it suddenly seem warm in here? It very much seemed warm. Who was in charge of the air-conditioning? Well whoever it was should be fired because it was _far too warm_.

“No, I just wanted to see how you’d react. I’m a genuine cop,” Rin said, holding his hands up as a gesture of innocence and honesty. “However…” and he brought his voice down to a low conspiratorial murmur that bordered on a purr. Haruka found himself subconsciously leaning in. “I guess for the right person I wouldn’t mind putting on a show.”

Haruka really didn’t know what to say to that and so managed a dumb, “ _Oh_ ,” to which Rin laughed and ran a hand through his hair.

“Seriously though… I’m glad you’re talking to me. You seemed really bored before. May as well have some fun since you’re here, right?”

“It’s not that I was bored,” Haruka tried to protest, “It’s just that I don’t really…” _Want to be here_. But even Haruka wasn’t tactless enough to actually say that, especially now when, admittedly, that wasn’t entirely true.

Still, Rin’s eyes seemed to flash with understanding and he nodded. “Ah, I get it.” For the first time since they’d started talking there was a lull in the conversation and while Haruka hadn’t minded this at all during the previous ‘dates’, he didn’t want this one to head south as well. With others the five minutes was a gruelling affair, but right now he was very conscious of the fact that time was constantly ticking away and that their seconds would soon be up.

Five minutes was simply not enough.

“You know,” Rin said after a moment, leaning back in his chair and gazing at the back wall thoughtfully, “With a job like mine, I don’t exactly have a lot of time to go on dates. I always thought speed dating was kind of ridiculous, full of people that wanted quick hook-ups or who were here out of reluctance or desperation. And yet here I am, looking for romance in five minutes.” His smile had turned a little self-deprecating. “Lame, right?”

“No,” Haruka said firmly, not lacking conviction. He even surprised himself. “That’s…. how it should be. Regardless of people like me, or others who don’t take it seriously. It’s nice to think like that. And with such intentions, you can even… make others enjoy it more than they thought they would.” He muttered this last bit, not used to speaking on subjects like this, but at least Rin was looking at him again and Haruka liked to think that it wasn’t just his wishful thinking that he saw a degree of hope on the man’s face.

“So you really are enjoying it?” he asked, the confident air temporarily suspended as he looked unsure.

Haruka nodded.

The bell rang again.

“ _God dammit_ ,” Rin hissed under his breath, casting a reluctant glance over to the next table. Haruka held his breath, waiting to see if Rin would abide by the rules this time. And yet he stayed put, whipping the badge out once more and telling the next man approaching their table with a very serious tone and a completely straight face that to make their date end now would actually be a criminal offence punishable with a prison sentence. Haruka stifled a small chuckle at the shocked expression the man wore as he practically sprinted off to find somewhere else to go.

This new concept was simple enough: sit down, hope to the gods that your social skills can keep the handsome policeman sat opposite you in that seat, and thoroughly enjoy the flow of conversation until the bell rang and said handsome policeman would come up with ever-more ridiculous ways to stay there.

(“I know how to use a baton. _Don’t_ make me show you.”)

(“Can’t a man enjoy an evening of good conversation with a chef?! Is this _really_ what our country has come to?!”)

(“Making me move is a violation of my human rights and you can be damn sure _yours_ will be violated if you try. And I’m the law, so it doesn’t exactly look good for you, huh?”)

They managed to get away with this strategy for about forty minutes before one of the organisers realised that there was a ‘rogue cop’ somewhere in the establishment that was throwing a spanner (or a baton) into the works and they weren’t as easily intimidated as some of the others, so Rin just sat there with a pout on his face as he was scolded like a school kid while Haruka pretended like he didn’t enjoy every minute of it.

While the two of them weren’t asked to leave, per say, the sharp jutting angle of the organiser’s hip and the way their eyebrows were fixed in pure annoyance was enough to imply that they should probably sod off before bodily harm became involved.

“Sorry for dragging you into this,” Rin apologised when they were both outside. “If I’d moved on then—”

“I really didn’t mind it,” Haruka said honestly. “I didn’t want to be there, but then you sat down so…” He wasn’t quite sure how to end the thought and so he started walking, not paying attention to the direction and not caring so long as Rin was by his side, which he was, following aimlessly along some random pavement.

“The organiser looked so mad.”

“Yeah…”

Rin started laughing and Haruka allowed a small smile onto his lips. He liked Rin’s laugh. It was cut short when their hands inadvertently brushed together though.

“Oh, uh, sorry,” he said awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck while simultaneously trying to angle his face away in a vain attempt to conceal the fact that his cheeks were very quickly catching up to the colour of his hair.

“…I don’t mind it,” Haruka replied, even as he glanced at the buildings around them as if suddenly fascinated by architecture.

“Yeah? Then that’s… good,” Rin said lamely.

Eventually their walk degenerated into a meander and ultimately they came to a stop altogether.

“I really had fun so would you like to—”  
“If you’d want to do this again then—”

They began at the same time, both stopping at once and nervously looking around themselves before Rin said, “Nanase, I would… really like to meet up again sometime. You know, if you want.”

Sometime… there’s a next time. They would have more time. Hopefully… a lot more time.

“Yeah. I’d like that too, Matsuoka.”

_‘I’d really really like it.’_

If Haruka had his way then this wouldn’t be confined to any sort of time constraint. He wasn’t sure if Rin had found the romance he was seeking in the numerous five minutes that they’d taken, but the way he was being looked at, and the look he was returning… to have an almost palpable attraction passing between them…

If not in the five minutes they’d already had, he was sure that they’d continue taking five until they did. And continue taking five long after that. Because with Rin he wasn’t awkwardly plodding through the five minutes and wasn’t wishing that the seconds would tick away.

If it was with Rin, then he was sure that he’d gladly take five forever.

**Author's Note:**

> These two dorks will be the death of me I swear. I hope you enjoyed it~
> 
> animeXalchemist


End file.
